Globalization involves being able to move people, objects and services across the world. It was intended as a way to open up one part of the world to other parts and increase communication between international groups. While governmental bodies often sought globalization because they wanted to make the world the better place this was not always the case. There are times that people take advantage of this sort of freedom and use their increased access to other places to perform illegal activities. This can be extremely difficult to control because globalization has generally promoted freedom. Thus, when is it time to sacrifice some of this freedom to ensure people are using their access to other places for good and not illegal behavior? Those countries that do agree to become a part of globalization also agree to work within the procedures determined by the World Trade Organization and other governing bodies such as the United Nation. These institutions help to address issues of criminal behavior that may come up over time including but not limited to: illegal drugs, human trafficking/contemporary slavery, cybercrimes and piracy. Attempts have been made to manage each of these issues and yet there are still ways to improve the efficacy of these attempts.

One illegal crime circle that has shown a marked increase in activity as a direct result of globalization has been the illegal drug trade. Drugs that used to exist primarily in one country now exist in multiple places, which shows the customer base has been expanded also do to globalization. Now, all drugs essentially exist in all places for several reasons. For one, they are more easily smuggled from country to country. This has seriously increased the globalization of drugs because more countries have access to specific drugs and natural drug precursors that require a good climate (such as is the case in cocaine) can now be farmed almost exclusively in countries that have an effective environment with which to grow and manufacture the drug. Since these countries receive more money to be able to farm the drug, this increases the overall abundance of the drug in the world. Also true is the increase in communication between members of the drug trade. With globalization these leaders or lackeys can travel between boarders for the purposes of “business.” This can make the business more effective and thus more capable of expansion.

Governing bodies that attempt to promote safe globalization have made attempts to limit this kind of illegal drug sharing. They are aware of the most problematic centers for this kind of illegal activity. In Central Asia for example, as many as 50% of people grow illegal drugs on their land. A poverty stricken part of the world, many of these individuals feel that they have no other resource with which to survive instead of becoming a part of the illegal drug industry. In addition in places such as Columbia are overwrought with drug lords and other gangs that make it almost impossible for the average citizen to deny contributing to the illegal drug trade if they are pressured to do so (Williams & Milani, 1999). At the very least many people feel they must turn an eye on the happenings in this world.

Two examples suggestions that have been proposed to address this problem include: promoting better communication between local authorities and global authorities as well as a strategy implemented by the United Nations that essentially marketed for a drug free world. The later strategy relied more on individuals who use drugs finding help or willingly agreeing to discontinue use. This is likely not the most effective strategy because unfortunately many people have been using drugs for years and years and are either not capable of stopping or unwilling to even try despite the obvious health consequences they are subsequently faced with. It is likely more effective to work on stopping larger drug cartels and cultivators. This may be more effectively done with the first approach to enhance communication between various officials. There are times that two countries or a country and the UN have has misunderstanding or less than effective knowledge sharing that have led to the insufficient management of illegal drug trading (Seddon, 2008). Working together is a way to ensure all of a countries boarders are enforced and that law enforcement itself is all focusing on the same goals and sharing helpful strategies.

It is not so much that the illegal drug trade itself can be handled more effectively. Crime is a difficult problem in general because there are so many people willing to commit crimes even with harsh consequences in place. Even human tracking/contemporary slavery, cybercrimes and piracy all exist so it is not enough to limit crimes in one are (i.e. in the illegal drug trade). Instead it is important to find ways to make globalization a healthier process across the board. One way of doing this may be to find a way to more effectively manage technology across countries. There are many tech savvy criminals who are able to use technology to their advantage in obscuring their identities from officials. In doing this they are able to spread crime in many ways whether it be moving money between sources or, in the horrifying case of human slavery, moving people between sources against their will (Seddon, 2008). Technology in the wrong hands can be a scary tool because people can use it without admitting to their identity. They can lure unsuspecting victims in through this means or even work with other criminals in a more secretive manner. Technology may even be the key to limiting global crime because it has been a huge factor in the explosion of crime across the globe thus far.

It is not an easy task to limit crime in any place let alone across the entire world, however it is extremely important that governing bodies find strategies that protect people while limiting freedom as little as possible. Perhaps one method would be to promote transparency between people in the technological world. It should not be possible for people to block their personal information from a computer so they are able to steal and sell data files (piracy) or communicate with other criminals. Instead perhaps people should have to use log in codes or IDs to access this kind of information sharing. Similarly countries can work together to share strategies that have been found to be more effective in limiting crime. Most importantly, every person in the world deserves equal rights so every country should make the effort not to simply help their own people but also others from around the world.